System and method for a multi system trust chain

ABSTRACT

A trust chain having client system and a remote system in a secure connection, wherein an intermediary system associated with the network flow path serves as a signing entity to establish an end to end transitive trust. The intermediate system is a corroborative entity in the operations technology realm of the client system. The remote system serves as the host for a plurality of services in the information technology realm. A two way handshake during the initial secure exchange protocol between a local client application and a remote service is extended to a three way handshake that includes a nonce issued by the remote service on the remote system and a digital signature for the nonce issued by a signature service on an associated intermediate system. The nonce signature is verified authoritatively at the remote system based on the signing certificate of the intermediate system for explicit proof of association.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/775,401, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A MULTI SYSTEM TRUST CHAIN”and filed on Jan. 29, 2020, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/429,455, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A MULTISYSTEM TRUST CHAIN” and filed on Feb. 10, 2017, which claims the benefitof priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/444,686,entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A MULTI SYSTEM TRUST CHAIN” and filed onJan. 10, 2017, each of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Field of the Disclosure

This invention relates to the field of cyber security and the Internetof Things (IoT), more particularly, to a system and method to establishan end to end multi system trust chain between a client system and aremote system in a secure connection, wherein an intermediary system inthe network flow path serves as a signing entity to establish transitivetrust.

Description of the Related Art

An end-to-end trust chain may be established between endpoints (devicesand gateways) deployed in the operational technology (OT) realm andremote services hosted in the information technology (IT) realm. Thisrequires a trust anchor at each end to serve as a hardware, software orfirmware based root of trust. However, OT endpoints inevitably traversemidstream security controls, such as network firewalls, to connect to ITapplications and services for integration with analytics, processesand/or data repositories. Breaking encryption rooted in trust anchorsand therefore the trust chain between peers, at a midstream securitycontrol for the purpose of content inspection, intrusion detectionand/or access controls, breaks end-to-end confidentiality and integrity.Therefore, there is need to establish a transitive end-to-end trustchain without breaking encryption midstream. One approach toreestablishing end-to-end trust is to provide a trust anchor at themidstream security control. However, this bump in the wire approachintroduces throughput and scalability bottlenecks because of sessionlevel decryption and encryption.

Typical network security devices (for example, next generation networkfirewalls and intrusion prevention systems) today must perform deeppacket inspection of application traffic that traverses the OT/IT edgefor application identification based access controls. However, clientapplications on a client system in the OT realm may encrypt dataexchanges using a trust anchor based on a root of trust (i.e. a secureelement with a cryptographic processor/engine such as for example aTrusted Platform Module (TPM), a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cardbased on Java Card technology, or a secure digital (SD) memory card(e.g. MicroSD)). The network security device therefore must eitheroperate in a passive pass-through or an active proxy mode. Further,traffic encryption performed by the client application at the clientsystem poses challenges to content inspection engines for applicationidentification and protocol or behavior based anomaly detection atintermediate (midstream, bump in the wire, man-in-the-middle (MITM))network security devices. Consequently, end to end traffic, between aclient system in the OT realm and a remote system in the IT realm, musttraverse an intermediate system at the OT/IT edge encrypted to preserveconfidentiality and integrity of data exchanges circumventingtraditional security controls.

Some of the current approaches use authentication methods for selectiveinsertion of authorized intermediate appliances that may intercept andmodify secure communications between the client and the server. As partof the session initiation between the client and the server, a secondsecure channel may be established via a first secure channel thatincludes participation by an authorized intermediate appliance in thesession initiation between the client and the server. However, such amethod requires sharing of secrets by the server with the client and theintermediate appliance. In sharp contrast, the proposed innovationestablishes a trusted session between the client and the server thattraverses the intermediate appliance without sharing any secrets withintermediate appliance thereby securing the communications path from anyinterception and/or modification of the channel at the intermediateappliance.

A root certificate authority (CA) may sign the certificate issued to anintermediate certificate authority to form a chain of trust. However,such signing does not constitute an end to end trust chain betweensystems and merely allows the intermediate CA to sign certificates onbehalf of the root CA. Certificates issued to client and server systemsby a CA may be used to establish secure encrypted communications betweenthe systems.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

While a root of trust establishes trusted identification and attestationof an endpoint device, it is also necessary to physically anchor theendpoint's presence in the OT network. For example, an IoT gatewayenrolled into a device management system must remain within itsconfigured OT network. An active association between the OT endpoint(for example, a IoT gateway) and an intermediate system in the OT/ITedge (for example, a network firewall at the OT edge) provides a measureof trustability of the endpoint based on the flow path (network route).The trusted intermediate system provides a form of one-time notarizationof the OT endpoint to the remote system.

Connection oriented and connectionless (datagram) services leverage theTransport Layer Security (TLS) protocol for secure transport. Thetwo-way handshake sequence between a local client application and aremote service may be extended to support a transitive trust chain. Thisrequires a method to facilitate an association between the trusted peersand an intermediate trusted system in the network flow path, wherein thedata is transported between peers without breaking end-to-end encryptionduring transit, thereby protecting confidentiality and integrity of thedata exchange.

In the proposed method, the negotiation phase to establish a sessionencrypted with a shared secret between the local client application andthe remote service includes a first step of one-time signing performedby a trusted intermediate system in the flow path between the localclient application and the remote service. A second step of one-timesignature verification on the remote system proves to the remote servicethat the local client application at the client system (for example, aOT endpoint) is able to establish an explicit trust with an intermediatesystem (for example, a network firewall) along the flow path between theclient and server systems and, optionally, exchange boot and executiontrust measurements attested to by the respective root of trust anchors.In essence, a multi-system trust chain between a client system, anintermediate system, and a remote system is established through athree-way, instead of a two-way, handshake during secure sessionestablishment. A two way handshake during the initial secure exchangeprotocol between a local client application and a remote service isextended to a three way handshake that includes a signature service onan associated intermediate system. The message signing is verifiedauthoritatively at the remote system based on the signing certificate ofthe intermediate system for explicit proof of association. Further,session replay protection is provided by means of a one-time nonce asthe artifact for signing and verification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The disclosure is best understood from the following detaileddescription when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.According to common practice, various features/elements of the drawingsmay not be drawn to scale. Common numerical references represent likefeatures/elements. The following figures are included in the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of establishing anend to end multi system trust chain in accordance with various exemplaryembodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a three way handshakesequence for session establishment between components of the model inaccordance with various exemplary embodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the client applicationinteractions and control flows on the client system in accordance withvarious exemplary embodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the remote serviceinteractions and control flows on the remote system in accordance withvarious exemplary embodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the signature serviceinteractions and control flows on the intermediate system in accordancewith various exemplary embodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of establishing an end toend multi system trust chain in accordance with various exemplaryembodiments of the disclosed system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of establishing an end toend multi system transitive trust chain traversing an intermediatesystem in accordance with various exemplary embodiments of the disclosedsystem.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary computer system in whichembodiments of the method of an end to end multi system trust chain canbe implemented.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will becomeapparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It shouldbe understood that the detailed description of exemplary embodiments areintended for illustration purposes only and are, therefore, not intendedto necessarily limit the scope of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Although the disclosure is illustrated and described herein withreference to specific embodiments, the invention is not intended to belimited to the details shown herein. Rather, various modifications maybe made in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of theclaims and without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

Application identification in the industrial IoT requires both acertificate chain and trust anchors (i.e. secure elements) to protectprivate keying materials issued to the application on the host system.Establishing (and extending) the trust across the network requires anend to end trust chain that can traverse trusted intermediate networkelements without requiring computationally intensive andcryptographically intrusive deep content inspection for protocol andbehavior based anonaly detection. An innovative method to establish anend to end multi system trust chain that overcomes such scalability andprivacy limitations in cross-realm environments is proposed. Theproposed method offers significant safety and performance enhancementsfor mission critical IoT applications and services.

The client system 108 provides client application 110 identification tothe signature service 114 based on a client certificate, boot metricsgenerated by a trust anchor 124 that serves as a root of trust (forexample, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM)), and execution metricsrequested from and reported by a root of trust (for example, TrustedExecution Environment (TEE), Intel® Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID), Intel®Software Guard Extension (SGX)).

Referring to FIG. 1 , client applications 110 installed on clientsystems 108 receive digital and/or analog data feeds from a plurality ofdevices 106 (for example, sensors, actuators, programmable logiccontrollers (PLC), remote terminal units (RTU)) for local analyticsand/or data archival by a data historian. The client systems 108 in theOT realm 102 establish a secure transport 116 to remote services 122 onremote systems 120 in the IT realm 104. A signature service 114 hostedon an intermediate system 112 at the OT/IT edge 100 provides a signingservice during setup of a network flow path 118 traversing theintermediate system to establish an end to end trust chain between theclient and remote systems. The trust anchors 124 on the client,intermediate, and remote systems respectively provide a hardware,software or firmware based root of trust interface 126 for applicationidentification, measurement, and attestation.

A logical trust bridge 128 is established at the OT/IT edge 100 on theintermediate system 112 for network traffic traversal, between the OTedge 116 and IT edge 118 interfaces, based on a digital signature for anonce issued by the signature service 114 to the client application 110.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, the proposed two wayhandshake between the client application 110 and the remote service 122may be integrated with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport LayerSecurity (TLS) protocol handshake between a SSL client and a SSL server(for example, the client hello, server hello and pre-shared secretmessages).

In another exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, the two wayhandshake between the client application 110 and the remote service 122may be integrated with any form of non-repudiable challenge-responsesequence between a client application and a remote service as part of anauthentication and/or authorization ceremony.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, the intermediatesystem 112 and the signature service 114 may be provisioned in the OTrealm 102 as a standalone network server and network servicerespectively.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , at step 202 the client application 110sends a session request message comprising of at least a list of ciphersuites and the intermediate system certificate to the remote service122. At step 204, the remote service 122 sends a session negotiatemessage comprising of at least the selected cipher suite, the servercertificate and a nonce. At step 206, the client application 110establishes a secure connection with the signature service 114 usingmutual certificate verification and optionally exchange of boot andexecution metrics attested to by a trust anchor on the respective clientand intermediate systems. The client application 110 sends the receivednonce to the signature service 114 for digital signing. At step 208, thesignature service 114 returns the signed nonce (i.e. a digital signaturefor the nonce) to the client application 110. At step 210, the clientapplication 110 sends a session setup message to the remote service 122comprising of at least an encrypted pre-master key and the signed nonce.At step 212, the remote service 122 verifies the signed nonce, using thepublic key of the verified intermediate system signing certificate, tovalidate the trust chain. At step 214, the client application 110computes the shared secret using the pre-master key. At step 216, theremote service 122 computes the shared secret using the pre-master key.At step 218, the client application 110 and remote service 122 engage inencrypted communications using the shared secret, traversing theintermediate system associate with the signature service 114 in the flowpath.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, at step 210 thepre-master key generated by the client application 110 may be encryptedusing the public key associated with the received remote service 122certificate before sending the encrypted pre-master key to the remoteservice 122. The received encrypted pre-master key may be decrypted bythe remote service 122 using the associated private key.

In another exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, instead ofreceiving and signing a nonce from the remote service 122, at step 210the client application 110 may generate a hash of the pre-master key, ora portion of the pre-master key, and sign the hash. At step 212, theremote service 122 may then verify the hash signature for the pre-masterkey.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, the clientapplication 110 may cache the received intermediate system 112 andremote service 122 certificates on the client system 108.

In yet another exemplary embodiment of the disclosed system, a remoteservice 122 that is not configured for the three way handshake for trustchain validation using the intermediate system certificate and thesigned nonce may ignore the received intermediate system certificate andthe signed nonce at steps 202 and 212 respectively. This providesinteroperability with client applications 110 and remote services 122based on common two way handshake protocols, such as for exampleSSL/TLS.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 , at step 302 the client application 110on a client system authenticates using a client certificate with asignature service 114 on an intermediate system 112 in the flow pathbetween the client system 108 and a remote system 120. At step 304, theauthenticated client application 110 requests the intermediate system'ssigning certificate from the signature service 114. At step 306, theclient application 110 sends a session request message to the remoteservice 122 on the remote system 120 that includes the receivedintermediate system signing certificate. At step 308, the clientapplication 110 receives a session negotiate message from the remoteservice 122 that includes a nonce. At step 310, the client application110 sends the nonce to the signature service 114 and requests signing ofthe nonce using the protected private key associated with theintermediate system's signing certificate. At step 312, the clientapplication 110 receives a signed nonce from the signature service 114.At step 314, the client application 110 sends a session setup messagethat includes an encrypted pre-master key and the signed nonce to theremote service 122. At step 316, the remote service 122 verifies thenonce signature using the public key associated with the receivedintermediate system signing certificate. The outcome of nonce signatureverification determines control flow. At step 318, upon failure toverify the nonce signature, the remote service 122 terminates theconnection with the client application 110. At step 320, upon successfulverification of the nonce signature, the client application 110 and theremote service 122 compute a shared secret using the pre-master key. Atstep 322, the client application 110 and the remote service 122 performencrypted communications using the shared secret.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 , at step 402, the remote service 122receives a session request message from a client application 110 on theclient system 108 that includes an intermediate system 112 signingcertificate. At step 404, the remote service 122 sends a sessionnegotiate message to the client application 110 along with a nonce. Atstep 406, the remote service 122 receives a session setup message thatincludes the digital signature for the nonce generated by the signatureservice 114 using the protected private key associated with theintermediate system's signing certificate. At step 408, the remoteservice 122 uses the public key associated with the intermediatesystem's signing certificate to verify the received digital signaturefor the nonce. At step 410, the outcome of nonce signature verificationdetermines control flow. At step 416, upon failure to verify the noncesignature, the remote service 122 terminates the connection with theclient application 110. At step 412, upon successful verification of thenonce signature, the client application 110 and the remote service 122compute a shared secret using the pre-master key. At step 414, theclient application 110 and the remote service 122 perform encryptedcommunications using the shared secret.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 5 , at step 502, the signing service 114accepts a secure connection from a client application 110 on a clientsystem 108 using the client certificate for authentication. At step 504,the signature service 114 may receive additional identification andattestation attributes from the client application 110 on the clientsystem 108 over the secure encrypted connection. At step 506, the clientapplication 110 and signature service 114 may optionally exchange bootand execution trust measurements attested to by the respective localhardware, software or firmware based root of trust anchor. At step 508,the signature service 114 receives a request from the client application110 for the signing certificate of the intermediate system 112. At step510, the signaling service 114 sends the intermediate system's signingcertificate to the client application 110 on the client system 108. Atstep 512, the signature service 114 receives a request from the clientapplication 110 to sign a nonce received from a remote service 122. Atstep 514, the signature service 114 signs the nonce using the protectedprivate key associated with the intermediate system's signingcertificate, and sends the digital signature for the nonce to the clientapplication 110. At step 516, the signature service 114 optionallyreceives a request for additional attributes that may includegeo-location coordinates, and sends the requested attributes to theclient application 110. At step 518, the secure connection between theclient application 110 on the client system 108 and the signatureservice 114 on the intermediate system 112 is terminated.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method of establishing an end to endmulti system trust chain between a client application on a clientsystem, a signature service on an intermediate system, and a remoteservice on a remote system.

Referring to FIG. 6 , at step 602 of the method, the client applicationsends a signing certificate of the intermediate system in a sessionrequest message of a two-way handshake sequence to the remote service.

At step 604 of the method, the remote service verifies the status of thereceived signing certificate of the intermediate system.

At step 606 of the method, the remote service generates a nonce for theclient application.

At step 608 of the method, the remote service sends to the clientapplication, the generated nonce in a session negotiate message of atwo-way handshake sequence.

At step 610, the client application and the signature service establisha trusted session based on application identification and attestation bythe client system.

At step 612, the client application sends to the signature service, thereceived nonce for issuance of a digital signature for the nonce by theintermediate system.

At step 614, the client application sends to the remote service in asession setup message the digital signature for the nonce received fromthe signature service.

At step 616, the remote service validates the trust chain by verifyingthe received digital signature for the nonce using the verified signingcertificate of the intermediate system.

At step 618, the client application and the remote service establish asecure transport for encrypted communications traversing theintermediate system.

Referring to FIG. 7 , at step 702 of the method, the intermediate systemin the network flow path parses a nonce issued by a remote service to aclient application in a two-way handshake sequence to establish a trustchain between the client system to the remote system.

At step 704 of the method, the intermediate system generates a dynamicrule to permit the two-way handshake sequence to establish a secureencrypted session. The dynamic rule comprises of at least the clientsystem network (IP) address, the remote system network (IP) address, thesource port number, and the destination port number associated with theclient application and the remote service respectively in the session.

At step 706 of the method, the intermediate system receives a requestfrom the client application to sign the nonce issued by the remoteservice.

At step 708 of the method, the intermediate system correlates thereceived nonce to the parsed nonce. The parsed nonce is associated withthe dynamic rule on the intermediate system for session initiationbetween the client application and the remote service.

At step 710 of the method, the intermediate system verifies the trustmetrics of the client application attested to by a trust anchor on theclient system, prior to nonce signing. The trust metrics establish proofof trusted boot of the client system and trusted execution of the clientapplication on the client system.

At step 712 of the method, the intermediate system updates the dynamicrule associated with the received nonce to permit the secure encryptedsession without inspection of, or modifications to, the encryptedtraffic between the client application and the remote service. Theparsed nonce associated with the established session is purged from theintermediate system to prevent reuse.

At step 714 of the method, the intermediate system establishes atransitive trust chain between the client system and the remote systemthat traverses the intermediate system in the network flow path. Ontermination of the session between the client application and the remoteservice, the associated dynamic rule is automatically deleted on theintermediate system.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computer system 800 in which embodimentsof the present invention, or portions thereof, may be implemented ascomputer-readable code. For example, the network systems andarchitectures disclosed here can be implemented in computer system 800using hardware, software, firmware, non-transitory computer readablemedia having instructions stored thereon, or a combination thereof andmay be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processingsystems. Hardware, software, or any combination of such may embody anyof the modules and components used to implement the architectures andsystems disclosed herein.

If programmable logic is used, such logic may execute on a commerciallyavailable processing platform or a special purpose device. One ofordinary skill in the art may appreciate that embodiments of thedisclosed subject matter can be practiced with various computer systemconfigurations, including multi-core multiprocessor systems,minicomputers, mainframe computers, computers linked or clustered withdistributed functions, as well as pervasive or miniature computers thatmay be embedded into virtually any device.

For instance, at least one processor device and a memory may be used toimplement the above-described embodiments. A processor device may be asingle processor, a plurality of processors, or combinations thereof.Processor devices may have one or more processor “cores”.

Various embodiments of the invention are described in terms of thisexample computer system 800. After reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art how to implementthe invention using other computer systems and/or computerarchitectures. Although operations may be described as a sequentialprocess, some of the operations may in fact be performed in parallel,concurrently, and/or in a distributed environment, and with program codestored locally or remotely for access by single or multiprocessormachines. In addition, in some embodiments the order of operations maybe rearranged without departing from the spirit of the disclosed subjectmatter.

Processor device 802 may be a special purpose or a general-purposeprocessor device. As will be appreciated by persons skilled in therelevant art, processor device 802 may also be a single processor in amulti-core/multiprocessor system, such system operating alone, or in acluster of computing devices operating in a cluster or server farm.Processor device 802 is connected to a communication infrastructure 826,for example, a bus, message queue, network, or multi-coremessage-passing scheme.

The computer system 800 also includes a main memory 804, for example,random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 806.Secondary memory 806 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 808,removable storage drive 810. Removable storage drive 810 may comprise afloppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a flashmemory, or the like.

The removable storage drive 810 reads from and/or writes to a removablestorage unit 812 in a well-known manner. Removable storage unit 812 maycomprise a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which is readby and written to by removable storage drive 810. As will be appreciatedby persons skilled in the relevant art, removable storage unit 812includes a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having storedtherein computer software and/or data.

In alternative implementations, secondary memory 806 may include othersimilar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system 800. Such means may include, for example, aremovable storage unit 816 and an interface 814. Examples of such meansmay include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as thatfound in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM,or PROM) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 816and interfaces 814 which allow software and data to be transferred fromthe removable storage unit 812 to computer system 800.

The computer system 800 may also include a communications interface 818.Communications interface 818 allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system 800 and external devices. Communicationsinterface 818 may include a modem, a network interface (such as anEthernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot and card, or thelike. Software and data transferred via communications interface 818 maybe in the form of signals, which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical, or other signals capable of being received by communicationsinterface 818. These signals may be provided to communications interface818 via a communications path 820. Communications path 820 carriessignals and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, aphone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link or other communicationschannels.

The computer system 800 may also include a computer display 824 and adisplay interface 822. According to embodiments, the display used toprovision and manage certificates may be the computer display 824, andthe console interface may be display interface 822.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium,” “non-transitorycomputer readable medium,” and “computer usable medium” are used togenerally refer to media such as removable storage unit 812, removablestorage unit 816, and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 808.Signals carried over communications path 820 can also embody the logicdescribed herein. Computer program medium and computer usable medium canalso refer to memories, such as main memory 804 and secondary memory806, which can be memory semiconductors (e.g., DRAMs, etc.). Thesecomputer program products are means for providing software to computersystem 800.

Computer programs (also called computer control logic) are stored inmain memory 904 and/or secondary memory 806. Computer programs may alsobe received via communications interface 818. Such computer programs,when executed, enable computer system 800 to implement the presentinvention as discussed herein. In particular, the computer programs,when executed, enable processor device 802 to implement the processes ofthe present invention, such as the stages in the methods illustrated bythe flowcharts in FIGS. 1-7 , discussed above. Accordingly, suchcomputer programs represent controllers of the computer system 800.Where the invention is implemented using software, the software may bestored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 800using removable storage drive 810, interface 814, and hard disk drive808, or communications interface 818.

Embodiments of the invention also may be directed to computer programproducts comprising software stored on any computer useable medium. Suchsoftware, when executed in one or more data processing device, causes adata processing device(s) to operate as described herein. Embodiments ofthe invention employ any computer useable or readable medium. Examplesof computer useable mediums include, but are not limited to, primarystorage devices (e.g., any type of random access memory), secondarystorage devices (e.g., hard drives, floppy disks, CD ROMS, ZIP disks,tapes, magnetic storage devices, and optical storage devices, MEMS,nanotechnological storage device, etc.), and communication mediums(e.g., wired and wireless communications networks, local area networks,wide area networks, intranets, etc.).

CONCLUSION

It is to be appreciated that the Detailed Description section, and notthe Summary and Abstract sections, is intended to be used to interpretthe claims. The Summary and Abstract sections may set forth one or morebut not all exemplary embodiments of the present invention ascontemplated by the inventor(s), and thus, are not intended to limit thepresent invention and the appended claims in any way.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described above with theaid of functional building blocks illustrating the implementation ofspecified functions and relationships thereof. The boundaries of thesefunctional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for theconvenience of the description. Alternate boundaries can be defined solong as the specified functions and relationships thereof areappropriately performed.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fullyreveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applyingknowledge within the skill of the art, readily modify and/or adapt forvarious applications such specific embodiments, without undueexperimentation, without departing from the general concept of thepresent invention. Therefore, such adaptations and modifications areintended to be within the meaning and range of equivalents of thedisclosed embodiments, based on the teaching and guidance presentedherein. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminologyherein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, suchthat the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is tobe interpreted by the skilled artisan in light of the teachings andguidance.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein withreference to specific embodiments, the invention is not intended to belimited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may be madein the details within the scope and range equivalents of the claims andwithout departing from the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: obtaining, by a firstcomputing system, from a second computing system, a digital certificateassociated with a third computing system, wherein the third computingsystem is located in a network flow path between the first computingsystem and the second computing system; verifying, by the firstcomputing system, the digital certificate; issuing, by the firstcomputing system, to the second computing system, a nonce based at leastin part on verifying the digital certificate, wherein the secondcomputing system routes, to the third computing system, a request tosign the nonce using a key associated with the digital certificate andobtains, from the third computing system, a digital signature based atleast in part on a verification of metrics associated with the secondcomputing system; obtaining, by the first computing system, from thesecond computing system, the digital signature; validating, by the firstcomputing system, the digital signature using the digital certificate;and establishing, by the first computing system, an updated flow pathfor one or more encrypted communications between the first computingsystem and the second computing system based at least in part onvalidating the digital signature, the updated flow path traversing thethird computing system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the updatedflow path comprises a transitive trust chain between the first computingsystem and the second computing system.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the updated flow path comprises a transitive trust chain betweenthe first computing system and the second computing system, the methodfurther comprising verifying the transitive trust chain based onvalidating the digital signature.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst computing system is a remote system and the second computingsystem is a client system.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingobtaining, by the first computing system, from the second computingsystem, one or more cipher suites.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: obtaining, by the first computing system, from the secondcomputing system, one or more cipher suites; and selecting, by the firstcomputing system, a cipher suite of the one or more cipher suites. 7.The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, by the firstcomputing system, from the second computing system, one or more ciphersuites; selecting, by the first computing system, a cipher suite of theone or more cipher suites; and transmitting, by the first computingsystem, to the second computing system, the cipher suite and the digitalcertificate.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, bythe first computing system, from the second computing system, one ormore cipher suites; selecting, by the first computing system, a ciphersuite of the one or more cipher suites; and transmitting, by the firstcomputing system, to the second computing system, the cipher suite, thenonce, and the digital certificate.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein asigned nonce is generated based on the second computing system routing,to the third computing system, the request to sign the nonce.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein a signed nonce is generated based on thesecond computing system routing, to the third computing system, therequest to sign the nonce, wherein the digital signature comprises thesigned nonce.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining,by the first computing system, from the second computing system, anencrypted key.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining,by the first computing system, from the second computing system, anencrypted key; and computing, by the first computing system, a sharedsecret.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, by thefirst computing system, from the second computing system, an encryptedkey; computing, by the first computing system, a shared secret; andengaging, by the first computing system, with the second computingsystem, in encrypted communications using the shared secret.
 14. A firstcomputing system comprising: memory; and at least one processing deviceconfigured to: obtain, from a second computing system, a digitalcertificate associated with a third computing system, wherein the thirdcomputing system is located in a network flow path between the firstcomputing system and the second computing system; verify the digitalcertificate; issue, to the second computing system, a nonce based atleast in part on verifying the digital certificate, wherein the secondcomputing system routes, to the third computing system, a request tosign the nonce using a key associated with the digital certificate andobtains, from the third computing system, a digital signature based atleast in part on a verification of metrics associated with the secondcomputing system; obtain, from the second computing system, the digitalsignature; validate, the digital signature using the digitalcertificate; and establish an updated flow path for one or moreencrypted communications between the first computing system and thesecond computing system based at least in part on validating the digitalsignature, the updated flow path traversing the third computing system.15. The first computing system of claim 14, wherein the updated flowpath comprises a transitive trust chain between the first computingsystem and the second computing system, wherein the at least oneprocessing device is further configured to verify the transitive trustchain based on validating the digital signature.
 16. The first computingsystem of claim 14, wherein the at least one processing device isfurther configured to: obtain, from the second computing system, one ormore cipher suites; and select, a cipher suite of the one or more ciphersuites.
 17. The first computing system of claim 14, wherein the at leastone processing device is further configured to: obtain, from the secondcomputing system, one or more cipher suites; select a cipher suite ofthe one or more cipher suites; and transmit, to the second computingsystem, the cipher suite and the digital certificate.
 18. The firstcomputing system of claim 14, wherein the at least one processing deviceis further configured to: obtain, from the second computing system, oneor more cipher suites; select a cipher suite of the one or more ciphersuites; and transmit, to the second computing system, the cipher suite,the nonce, and the digital certificate.
 19. The first computing systemof claim 14, wherein the at least one processing device is furtherconfigured to: obtain, from the second computing system, an encryptedkey; and compute a shared secret.
 20. The first computing system ofclaim 14, wherein the at least one processing device is furtherconfigured to: obtain, from the second computing system, an encryptedkey; compute a shared secret; and engage, with the second computingsystem, in encrypted communications using the shared secret.